A podcast all about Japanese cartoons and comics as discussed by three self-proclaimed experts in the world of anime and manga! Plus anime news / reviews, coverage of classic anime, hentai / yaoi, and much, much more. Updated every week. We hope.

Our special guest this week is Zac “Answerman” Bertschy from Anime News Network! We spend the episode giving our con report of Otakon 2006. Clarissa is woefully absent from this recording, but she’ll be back next time. If you’re lucky.

Introduction (0:00 – 3:45)
I guess Jeff Nimoy sounds like Wolfwood as his regular speaking voice. Daryl quickly introduces this episode since he thought there was a pre-recorded intro for this episode but there wasn’t. He actually had acute bronchitis at the time this segment was recorded, so that’s why his voice sounds kind of off. Thanks to your generous support, we have successfully met our donations goal, so we’re getting some brand new audio equipment! For not other reason aside from because Mur Lafferty and Rob Walch told us to, we’ve ordered one Alesis Multimix8 USB mixer and two M-Audio MobilePre USB preamps. We’ll order the third preamp after JACON matches the up to $250 that they so generously offered to do, but it’s not like we’re going to be battering on their door saying “hey, where’s our free money?!” especially when you consider that we don’t actually KNOW how to use any of the equipment yet! Alternatively, we could get another $40 in donations and that’d cover the cost of the final preamp right now, but you guys have already done way more than enough, WAY faster than any of us would have imagined.

The Otakon 2006 report constitutes the rest of the show. Here’s time markers denoting when we start to talk about certain subjects. Does Zac’s voice sounds similar to Alan Chaess to anyone else?

4:45 – What Gerald and Zac expect out of Otakon each year, which ultimately kicks off an East Coast vs West Coast anime fandom feud

8:05 – Getting to the convention and the hassles involved therein…for just Daryl: he referenced The Way of the Gun casually, a movie nobody else likes but him

16:02 – Gerald talks about going to dinner with other podcasters Thursday night, an event Daryl mostly missed because he was one step away from reliving Judgment Night, but Daryl was there just long enough to make most everyone else there despise him, resulting in this rather severe joke. Several people have tried similar initiatives over the years, and all it does is remind Daryl of how depressing it is that even Mike Jittlov is more lovable than he. Worry not, he follows the credo that Toki spoke unto almighty Kenshiro: “turn your sorrow into anger, and move on…”

17:45 – Press access, how unnecessarily difficult it is to obtain at Otakon, and how Otakon’s the only anime con where we still had to pay to get in even as press since let’s face it, we’re not really press that MATTERS…not quite yet, anyway!

23:40 – Badge selection, why it sucked, and why Daryl and Gerald are out of touch with reality

Promo: The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast (27:20 – 28:07)
Not only did Paul donate the largest single amount to us out of everyone who sent in donations (Daryl’s good friend Jason donated just as much, and between the two of them that pretty much covered most everything), he has a podcast where he has VOWED to talk about Highlander 2…WITH HIS MOM. After having already reviewed American Ninja with his mom as well as Godzilla vs the Smog Monster, the next logical step is for the two of them to review Zardoz together.

28:08 – Signs at conventions and the thankful lack thereof at Otakon

30:58 – The con guide, con mini-guide/map/schedule, and how useful/accurate these actually were

37:00 – Staffers at Otakon, the recent trend of anime cons having trouble getting their volunteers/staffers to actually SHOW UP for their shifts, and our dealer’s room experience

46:43 – Panel stuff: the toy collecting panel that was contradictory in its message, the Gainax/Ghibli/Studio 4C panels that we were hoping would have been more, and the awesome sentai panel as run by the guy who hosts the Rangercast podcast. We’ve been told that the people from TV-Nihon have declared this guy anathema because he had the BRAZEN NERVE to show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at a sentai panel, and according to them “POWER RANGERS ISN’T SENTAI, RAAAAGH!” as if to suggest that they must have all gotten into that terrifying fandom by watching Spectreman on TV right as it came out or something. As a result, they plan to do all they can to ensure he doesn’t get the sentai panel next year. If this is indeed true, then that is absolute, total crap. Also, the reason so many people think Gerald has a weird accent is because he pronounces “schedule” as “shed-ule” unless he deliberately thinks not to.

53:00 – Cosplay stuff at Otakon and how most of it wasn’t anime-related

Promo: Fast Karate for the Gentleman (54:05 – 55:03)
Now that Daryl has admitted that he steals his jokes from this podcast, more people are listening to it and are able to realize that he was telling the truth for once. It is only fitting that this promo be played right after one more such joke was stolen.

57:03 – The Older Otaku panel that was run by people about our age…hey, wait a second!

1:00:18 – The Madhouse panel and the Mecha Anime Trivia panel which Gerald won – find out how Gerald hates the concept of giving things away that he doesn’t like or need to begin with, Zac reiterates his love for Anime Expo, and Daryl uses HIGHLY OFFENSIVE anti-Semitic remarks and Mel Gibson’s recent antics for comedy, thus earning this podcast the wrath of anti-defamation groups everywhere!

1:06:20 – Zac tells us about what REAL press do at anime conventions (sobriety optional)

1:07:43 – The state of industry panels at anime conventions

1:09:58 – Panels that Otakon didn’t expect quite so many people to attend: the Kingdom Hearts panel, the 4Chan panel which Gerald and Zac didn’t like, and the Oldschool Anime panel which nobody liked

1:15:56 – Zac offers up an idea that is GUARANTEED to make someone FILTHY RICH if they actually implement it

1:18:00 – The podcasting panel as hosted by GeekNights and the Anime News Network panel which Zac was on; Zac plugs some of ANN’s future (probably current by now) contests and promotions

1:27:30 – What appears to be the official Otakon response to the various con gripes, and our final thoughts

Closing (1:36:12 – 1:37:55)
The hissing that Daryl was talking about probably disappears once he sets the sampling rate to 22050. Next week, Clarissa will be back as we answer listener emails with Dave Merrill, former Anime Weekend Atlanta con chair and Anime Hell grand poobah, as featured in the documentary Otaku Unite! which is now available on DVD. Dave is officially Smarter Than Us and is someone that Daryl has always aspired to be like, but comes up short time and time again.

I wore my costume to a non-cosplay panel I ran this year. Didn’t think too much of it other than I spent a lot of time on it, so dammit I’m gonna wear it. At least I was talking about parody dubs, so it’s not like I needed people to take me seriously.

I must know, Gerald, what Gundam SEED model kit was so much more important, than the happiness of your dear fans. Becuase simply put, you have no excuse, unless it was the 1/12 Person-sized Original RX-78 Gundam.

I can understand why Darryl and Gerald might think that the badges were co-sponsored by the Anime Studios. It is free press, after all. Otacon is practically ONE gigantic commercial made more effective because it is opt-in. Admitting it sucks would make you stupid for paying for it in the first place.

But since Otacon is small, it stands to think they dont have enough muscle to talk with the big wigs.

A true Otacon would have badges from all anime genres. But the ppl profiting from anime aren’t fans. They are businessmen. Just look at the reporters that AWO compete with. If AWO, with their puny resources, could find, engage, and create newsworthy stories, then there must be something seriously wrong about the “real news” who are rarely knowledgeable about the subject of their reports.

AWO is a bit too idealistic sometimes. That’s how you can tell that they do love the industry. Cynical yet wide eyed naivete. This post is a mass of contradictions!

The badges reflect the manga/anime distribution numbers. AWO & company is not the market for them. I would love badges of Yamato Takeru, Future Boy Conan, SD Gundam, Shurato, Gaogaigar, the chick from Starship Yamato, and the ninja girl from Wataru.

Fuck Hellsing and Speed Grapher. It’s safer to do cons the corporate way. Or you can do things like Penny Arcade and be GREAT. I missed PA expo this year but it looks like it was great. Sigh. If you are going to make money off anime fans, employ real fans! They aren’t all uncreative, unintelligent low lifes. Just look at AWO. 2 out of 3 aint bad.

your observation of the lack of staff was not wrong at all. It was in fact right on the mark.I had dinner with an otakon staffer on saturday night and he told me how for the first time in years they had a SERIOUS shortage of people in staff helping to just run things in general. and he told me how it was a bit of a pain to many involved. they did have more of those security guys in the pseudo cop uniforms but all they really did is yell at people if they were anywhere near the escalators in a very annoying way…

I must know, Gerald, what Gundam SEED model kit was so much more important, than the happiness of your dear fans. Becuase simply put, you have no excuse, unless it was the 1/12 Person-sized Original RX-78 Gundam.

Well this is the model I won on the right. On the left is just something I was very happy to find at Otakon and it wasn’t too expensive either. And if you’re talking about my fans, you’re deluding yourself since I have none, if you mean for the podcast in general, well, it was a general lapse of judgement, BUT WAIT, what’s Daryl doing with that Patlabor 1 mega box that he said he was going to give away, or that Tenchi Universe box set that he won from a show that he hates? Oh HO, NAY, I say that we are one and the same and are only thinking of ourselves!

That’s strange that they’d give you all that trouble for press. I was a mere panelist and was allowed to go to the Special Needs booth with no line, and only had to provide photo ID. This might have had something to do with our intentional attempt to travel in a big group of people wearing TEAM 4CHAN shirts. (no, we have no idea where our users come from either)

And I promise that my panel on anonymous Japanese internet forums was almost kind of about anime.

> We’ve been told that the people from TV-Nihon have declared this guy anathema because he had the BRAZEN NERVE to show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at a sentai panel

On one of those websites where you can download things for free, TV-Nihon posts always fill the comment field with insults of everyone on the planet not them. I once suggested the site filter out their comments, but I don’t think the owner liked my idea.

Zac seemed much more upbeat than he did posting on SA, didn’t he? Must be the time delay.

Huh…Gold Frame Amatu…I guess that’s a pretty good mobile suit. But still, it’s not MG level at least, even if it is 1/100 scale.And you see, I was at one point, your fan. Until the Search for the Truth for Jacon came, and you were playing Dead Or Alive 4. That just tore me up inside. Yeah, so where the hell is the Patlabor boxset that I attempted to ask for but failed, go to anyways? That’s what I want to know.

You guys need to cut down on the con coverage. It’s really provincial and just plain doesn’t matter much.

Yeah, we really should spread these out some. For what it’s worth, “con season” is pretty much over, so the only con report left that’ll take up a full show is Anime Weekend Atlanta. Which I really should start working on panels for about now.

BUT WAIT, what’s Daryl doing with that Patlabor 1 mega box that he said he was going to give away, or that Tenchi Universe box set that he won from a show that he hates? Oh HO, NAY, I say that we are one and the same and are only thinking of ourselves!

The Patlabor box is packed and ready to ship out to Jeff Tatarek. I just have to go to the post office and actually send it, which is tricky because my work hours overlap with the post office’s hours and I always oversleep on Saturdays. The Tenchi box set is in my “to watch” pile right next to the Black Jack, Gatchaman, Dirty Pair, Tetsujin 28, and soon to be all of Ghost in the Shell SAC.

I don’t think Zac actually has a SA forums account himself, though he was certainly aware of the site. Besides, people have to look like their avatars in real life. TheSwami almost certainly looks like Jason Schwartzman, much like I have a giant pulsating toe and Gerald is…uh…what is Gerald again…

A fat, mostly bald infant baby head with a question mark and “STUPID NEWBIE” written on it. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

A fat, mostly bald infant baby head with a question mark and “STUPID NEWBIE” written on it. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

I think that site needs a standard avatar of a lollipop with “Sucker” written on it for having paid $10 to register for an account on a forum and then another $5.00 to change your avatar. Man, to pay to post on a forum, and another $10 to search, those are the suckers, thankfully my account is free and I never use it.

It’s a waste of time and money to sell that on ebay. You should just build the thing, buy a gun, and youtube the execution of the gundam.

What’s even worse, now that I think about it. I was informed right after I picked the model that it wasn’t actually from any Gundam TV show and was from a manga instead. So not only did I get a eh Gundam, but it’s like a side-story/fanfiction Gundam to boot!

For what it’s worth, I can’t stand Seed and I think that design is pretty awesome, if way over done. The wings should go, and the hooks should go where the wings are. Also, what is that Wolverine beam claw bullshit. The rest is pretty swank, though.

It’s a very interesting side mobile suit though. But I don’t think they could put any of the Gundams in the side stories into SEED. They’re all too powerful, so it would be like adding antoher three or four Strike Freedoms.

Hm, I have to say I was slightly annoyed by your review of the toy panel. I’m biased as I was one of the panelists. But, that aside, you didn’t even get your facts straight on the panel itself. It was a toy collecting panel, yes. However, you took alot of our comments out of order. We said yes, collect toys. I myself said DO NOT collect for the monetary value, but for the sheer enjoyment of collecting. We explained why our toys are stored as they are because of lack of display space available to us at the moment. It was also not just anime toys we were referencing. We NEVER said “how to buy and store your toys so they’ll be worth something as collector’s items”. We did cover how to store toys for those that do wish to save them for collecting, since that was one element of what our panel was about. The rest of the panel focused on the joy of collecting and what strange things you can find out there. The storage part was only about 5 minutes worth of panel time. Nothing was mentioned about profit of toy collecting.

Get your facts straight next time. It can’t be that bad a panel if we’ve been there for 3 years and people keep coming back to see us. Maybe it is. Who knows. But like I said, get your facts straight. Before you do a review of something you didn’t even fully attend. We had a good amount of positive feedback from those that did bother to stay for the whole thing after the panel ended.

I do admit our panel wasn’t as polished this year as it was in years past, and that is purely our fault. Had you chosen that to critique, I would have been ok with your review.